North Seattle Neighborhood Greenway & School Safety Project

What's happening now

Coming summer 2017

We're creating a network of family-friendly residential streets for people walking and biking in north Seattle. This summer we're building two Safe Routes to School neighborhood greenway in north Seattle - on N 92nd St and 1st Ave NW. The new neighborhood greenways will be short and intuitive connections to existing routes in the neighborhood.

You'll see us working near you as we build out the neighborhood greenway over the next few months:

minor sidewalk repairs and pothole-filling

tree and vegetation trimming (see section below for details)

asphalt speed hump construction of about 1 per block, depending on block length and slopeintersection traffic control, including new stop signs with parking setbacks

intersection traffic control, including new stop signs with parking setbacks

wayfinding signs and markings, including "sharrow" bike markings on the pavement

Before the neighborhood greenway improvements are built, we'll need to prune any vegetation and trees that extend into the street. The purpose of the tree pruning is to make sure street signs are visible, the sidewalk area is clear for people walking, and to allow large equipment through without impacting the trees. We've sent notices to the individual homes that have trees that need pruning with specific instructions.

North Seattle Neighborhood Greenway

Thank you to all who shared their feedback on the most promising route for the North Seattle Neighborhood Greenway & School Safety Project at our drop-in events and online survey. We are developing our final route based on what we heard, citywide transportation plans, and traffic data. That route is expected to be built as soon as 2018.

Stay in the loop by subscribing to our email distribution list. We'll share our final route and opportunities to stay involved as we move from planning to design to construction.

Project Overview

What's a Neighborhood Greenway?

Neighborhood greenways are safer, calmer residential streets for you, your family, and neighbors. We make people walking and biking the priority. Neighborhood greenways can include:

We're working with community members from Crown Hill, Greenwood, Licton Springs, and Northgate to select a route for a new east-west neighborhood greenway to be built as soon as 2018.

The Bicycle Master Plan (BMP) recommends a neighborhood greenway on NW/N 90th St in the southern part and N 100th St in the northern part of the community to meet up with the planned bridge across I-5. Protected bike lanes on N 92nd St were proposed in the BMP and then prioritized in our recent implementation plan.

Most promising route

Click image to view full-size map

See the map above for the most promising route and proposed Safe Routes to School neighborhood greenway connections.

The most promising route was selected after listening to the neighborhood, reviewing the existing plans, and analyzing the data. The selected route avoids the steepest hills and prioritizes streets with lower vehicle speeds and volumes. It also connects people to the destinations we heard were most important.

All our neighborhood greenway streets will include speed humps, prioritize people walking and biking, and improve crossings of busy streets.

Seattle Public Schools is redeveloping the Wilson-Pacific school site into new elementary, K-8, and middle schools that will open in 2017, and we're planning to build a pedestrian and bicycle bridge for the Northgate Link light rail station scheduled to open in 2021.

Before the new schools open and in preparation for the new bridge, we're prioritizing this neighborhood greenway and school safety project to make North Seattle transportation safer for everyone - whether you're walking, driving, biking, taking transit, or moving goods.

Safe Routes to School connection

Our Safe Routes to School program works with families and community members, transportation department colleagues working on projects, and the school district to develop action plans and prioritize projects.

Our Safe Routes to School is funding crossing improvements at 15th Ave NW and NW 92nd St at Whitman Middle School, NW 80th St and 1st Ave NW at Greenwood Elementary School, and the Safe Routes to School Connections providing neighborhood greenway routes shown on the map above to both school on 1st Ave NW and the new schools at the Wilson-Pacific site: Eagle Staff Middle School, Cascadia Elementary School, and Licton Springs K-8 School.

The Safe Route to School connections are paid for by a Washington State Department of Transportation Safe Routes to School grant.

Get Involved

Hundreds of people gave feedback on our project through public meetings, site visits with community members, an online survey, and direct communications. We heard a lot of requests for a neighborhood greenway with:

slower speeds on residential streets

safer crossings at busy intersections

flatter routes with less cut-through traffic

improved connections to schools, parks, transit, and local businesses

We also heard that people wanted to use the neighborhood greenway to reach:

popular business districts

schools and parks

transit

Seattle's growing bikeway network

Project background

The Bicycle Master Plan (BMP) calls for a neighborhood greenway on NW/N 90th St in the southern part and N 100th St in the northern part of the community to meet up with the planned bridge across I-5. Protected bike lanes on N 92nd St were proposed in the BMP and then prioritized in our recent implementation plan.

Our Safe Routes to School program works with families and community members, transportation department colleagues working on projects, and the school district to develop action plans and prioritize projects.

Our Safe Routes to School is funding crossing improvements at 15th Ave NW and NW 92nd St at Whitman Middle School, NW 80th St and 1st Ave NW at Greenwood Elementary School, and the Safe Routes to School Connections providing neighborhood greenway routes shown on the map above to both school on 1st Ave NW and the new schools at the Wilson-Pacific site: Eagle Staff Middle School, Cascadia Elementary School, and Licton Springs K-8 School.